Crude oil price reported its biggest annual growth since 2009

The crude oil prices are rising at the very beginning of 2017, supported by the agreement to reduce the oil production in OPEC and outside the cartel, which came into force on January 1. The raw material finished 2016 with the largest price increase since 2009. The US light WTI crude oil rose by 45% during the year, while the European Brent oil rose by 52%.

According to many economists and market watchers, January will play the role of an indicator of whether the agreement will be respected. The markets will look for evidence of declines oil production. The most likely scenario is that OPEC and non-OPEC countries will adhere the deal, especially in the early stages.

Libya, which is an exception from the OPEC agreement, has increased production to 685,000 barrels per day since the beginning of the year, which represent an increase of 85,000 barrels per day against the average production in December. The data is representative of the National Oil Corporation.

Last week, Oman notify its customers it will cut supply by 5% from May.

Russia, which is not a member of OPEC, announced that the yield in December were unchanged at 11.21 million barrels per day, but is preparing to reduce output by 0.300 million barrels per day in the first half of 2017.